protuding wad cutter in 38 special

[Marlin Hunter]

Has anyone tried to leave part of the wad cutter protruding from the end of a (38) Special round so that it just barely engages the throats in the cylinder of a 357 mag. I was thinking about trying this out to see if it improves accuracy. I figured that there was 0.120" less free travel for the boolit to get cocked before it leaves the cylinder and enters the forcing cone.

Which (Lee) boolits would be better for this, the tumble lube or the regular lube style? I am thinking the tumble lube would be better since I would be less likely to crimp on the empty space of a large lube groove.

[35remington]

Yes, I have, but of course it lowers velocities compared to that obtained when the same bullet is seated flush. So bump up the powder charge a few tenths to get the same speeds.

I use both the TL and conventional Lee wadcutters for this, but you can only seat the conventional out one lube groove as two grooves out doesn't leave enough bullet in the case for a good friction fit. Crimp on the bottom of the lube groove and you won't be crimping on an empty space.

A nice bonus is that you can run the wadcutter at higher velocities for the same pressures when you seat it out a bit compared to flush and add a little powder. Adds a little case capacity.

[shooting on a shoestring]

Yes, in fact some wadcutters like my 358091 are designed to protrude about 3/16" or so. Great thing about handloading, you can do stuff like experiment with seating depths and see what results you get.

I do something along the same lines in my loose chambered .45 Colt Blackhawk. I only size where the boolit sits in the case mouth and leave the remaining 2/3 of the case unsized. That makes a noticable step in the case walls, but the larger as fired portion centers the boolit in the chamber instead of allowing it to slump to the bottom.

You're looking to do the same sort of idea, center your boolit better than the loosnes of the chamber does. It will probably help a little, but may be a bit harder to chamber due to shoving the boolit nose into the throats. It may not be a problem, and if it is, it may be worth it.

Try it.

[Echo]

I load the Lyman 358432 in .38 Special brass for a friend - she shoots an M19, and I think the protruding nose of the boolit reduces leakby and acts as a bore-rider. Or something.

[runfiverun]

who says you have to crimp a 38 special target load?
they make a taper crimp for ironing out the bell.
you don't even have to iron out the flair if it fits the cylinder.
sometimes you can get away with not even sizing a case if you do the measuring right, and the loads don't expand the case over .001 when fired.

[Recluse]

Has anyone tried to leave part of the wad cutter protruding from the end of a (38) Special round so that it just barely engages the throats in the cylinder of a 357 mag. I was thinking about trying this out to see if it improves accuracy. I figured that there was 0.120" less free travel for the boolit to get cocked before it leaves the cylinder and enters the forcing cone.

Been doing this for over twenty years.

An old-shooter at our American Legion post back home showed me his secret. Cool post--had our own indoor 25-yard shooting range. I never seen ANYONE who could shoot Colt Gov't .45's the way those old WWII vets could. Those guns would shake and waver in their trembling hands (they all shot offhand) and you just knew they were going to completely miss the target.

But *BANG!* and you'd look, and there was a hole in the X-ring. *BANG!* Another hole in the X-ring. Those old warriors could do that all day long, every day.

Who was I to even think twice when one of them told me to leave a little bit of wadcutter sticking out of the brass and use 2.8 grains of Bullseye instead of 2.7?

:coffee: